Due to a vast range of reasons, there has been a need of identifying animal species origin of a sample. For example, in the context of forensic investigation there is often the need of ascertaining the identity of an animal tissue sample in a crime scene. In the context of quality control of food manufacturing, there is a need to ascertain whether a food product claimed to contain certain type of animal meat is indeed what it is claimed to be. There are actually many other possible applications of using animal species origin or animal tissue identification methods, and one can also envisage that such applications can be very useful in medical science and pharmaceutical industry, and of course to address food safety issues as well.
There have been many methodologies seeking to address the needs of identification of animal species. While many of these methodologies have their unique characteristics, they often suffer from drawbacks, and tend to address some issues but not others. For example, some methodologies tend to be fairly accurate in their identification but at the expense of tremendous complexity in procedures. Some other methodologies are relatively simple in terms of procedures but often involve using high end equipment which requires significant financial investment and specially trained personnel (e.g. high speed DNA sequencing). Yet some methodologies are easy to grasp but the time needed to conduct identification is too long and commercially unrealistic and thus virtually unusable. Yet further, some methodologies are not able to distinguish a specimen when the sample contains multiple sources of animal species tissues, or at least they are not able to distinguish a specimen in one experiment.
The present invention seeks to address the aforementioned issues by providing a method which endeavors to balance different factors, or at least to provide an alternative balance, and means thereof. At least the present invention seeks to provide an alternative to the public for identifying an animal species sample, and means thereof.